Today is the last full week for class at my school before the onslaught of final exams.
It’s been a rather a trying year for teachers and other educators in public schools. The adjustments, the outreach, the conversion of lesson plans to another format, the communication, the… you name it.
It is all a continuing reminder of what all goes into this job that most of us do not actually call a job, but maybe a calling. And it makes me again ask that question: so what is the job description of a teacher?
Needless to say, it garnered quite a response from teachers around the state.
In a state where the teaching profession has undergone assault after assault from lawmakers, many in Raleigh pin their opinions of teacher and school performance on test results and financial bottom lines. They then craft policies that match those opinions.
They are still doing it in this session of the NC General Assembly with bills on “transparency” and limiting what “can be taught.”
So I want to ask a non-rhetorical question of any lawmaker in North Carolina (and actually anyone else), what exactly is the job description of a North Carolina public school teacher?
This is by no means a loaded question or one that is asked to create a nebulous web of answers that would cloud the actual debate. But if public education is to be the issue that defines another session of the NC General Assembly which holds the budget hostage ove teacher pay, that decides votes in a huge upcoming election year, and that all people already have some sort of stake in, then what the role of a public school teacher in North Carolina might need to be more understood.
Is it to deliver curriculum and teach mastery?
Is it to help students grow into productive citizens?
Is it to “teach” the whole child – intellectually, mentally, emotionally, etc.?
Is it to get students to pass standardized tests?
Is it to keep students safe?
Is it all all of those things and much more?
Below is a screenshot from the statutes of the General Assembly concerning the “duties” of teachers.
They include a variety of “duties,” some more defined than others: discipline, “teaching,” reporting, provide for well-being, medical care, keep order, etc.
Now throw in some other factors and variables that have a direct effect on those “duties” like poverty, hunger, sickness, apathy, lack of resources, overcrowding, and respect for the profession. It makes those duties in the above statute seem a little more expansive.
So, what is the real job description of a public high school teacher in North Carolina that considers the defined duties, expectations, and realities of public educators? And are you willing to share that as a lawmaker who makes decisions on how teachers are resourced, treated, and viewed? If not, then you might need to educate yourself.
And if you are willing, are you ready to hear from teachers the truth?
But after all the platitudes, accolades, and lip service that so many in Raleigh have paid to the teaching profession, every lawmaker must ask him/herself, what is it really worth?
One of the first items that the GOP controlled General Assembly attempted to pass in the early part of the last decade was the removal of due-process right for all teachers. Commonly called “tenure,” due process rights are erroneously linked to the practice that colleges use to award “tenure” to professors. Actually, they really are not the same.
What due-process means is that a teacher has the right to appeal and defend himself / herself when an administrator seeks to terminate employment or challenge what a teacher has done in class based on third-person accounts. It means that a teacher cannot be fired on the spot for something that is not considered an egregious offense.
Of course, if a teacher does something totally against the law like inappropriate relations with students, violence, etc., then due-process rights do not really apply. But a new principal in a school does not have the right to just clean house because of right-to-work and “at will” laws. Teachers with due process rights cannot just be dismissed with the swish of a wand.
Thanks to NCAE and some courageous teachers like a friend in my district, the courts decided that it would be a breach of contract for veteran teachers who had already obtained career-status. But that did not cover newer teachers who will not have the chance to gain career status and receive due process rights.
Just look at some of the bills that have been introduced and actions taken to “control” what people who are not in classrooms think is being taught in classrooms.
There is even a bill that is trying to force teachers to give an acceptable reason for taking a personal day.
What also gets lost in the conversation with the public is that due-process rights and career-status are protective measures for students and schools. Teachers need to know that they can speak up against harsh conditions or bad policies without repercussions. Teachers who are not protected by due-process will not be as willing to speak out because of fear.
Due-process removal actually weakens the ability of the teaching force in NC to speak up and advocate a little each year as veteran teachers retire and are replaced by new teachers who do not receive those rights.
Simply put, veteran teachers’ records prove their effectiveness or they would not have gotten continuing licenses. Teachers with due-process rights actually work to advocate for schools and students without fear of sudden reprisal.
They are that important! Their removal was a beginning step in a patient, scripted, and ALEC-allying plan that systematically tries to weaken a profession whose foundation is advocating for public schools.
It’s rather insulting to think that my preparation and my continued development in my profession, my expertise in my field of study, and my years of experience have brought this continued attack on my being a professional educator.
And are these lawmakers willing to post their “lesson plans?” Are they willing to show where they got their “resources?” Are they willing to divulge how they crafted their “bills” and “policies?”
Are they willing to share how think tanks and interest groups guide what proposals they are putting forth?
Do they have the guts to share what they say in committee and special sessions?
Probably not because those same lawmakers are trying to pass this at the same time.
Art imitates life. It’s one of the reasons why teaching great works of literature is vital in a high school education.
One title that is read and taught in many high school English I classes in North Carolina is Animal Farm.
Animal Farm is an allegorical fable that Eric Blair (George Orwell was his pen name) uses to comment on the rise of the Soviet brand of communism and the absolute corruption that comes over those who grab power. In it animals take over a farm from their human owner, Mr. Jones, and immediately set up a “utopian” society in which all animals are equal. They even come up with a list of commandment for all to abide by.
They read as follows:
THE SEVEN COMMANDMENTS 1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal. 7. All animals are equal.
Idealistic to some, but human (“pig”) greed gets in the way. As a few pigs consolidate control of the farm, abuses of power occur. Think of it as redistricting of sorts. Maybe gerrymandering. Maybe even attempting to restructure the judicial system to gain a certain ideological bent on most benches.
What happens throughout the book is a rewriting of the commandments. Those who retain power get to write the rules. They also get to rewrite the rules. Think of the Voter ID Act or the HB2 bill that targeted the LGBTQ community among other things. Think of the special sessions and the way that the last summer’s state budget was passed within committee instead of open debate.
And then think of education.
In Animal Farm, the rules get rewritten so that those in power can get more power. Eventually toward the end of the book the seven commandments read as such:
Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. 2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. 3. No animal shall wear clothes. 4. No animal shall sleep in a bed – WITH SHEETS. 5. No animal shall drink alcohol – TO EXCESS. 6. No animal shall kill any other animal – WITHOUT CAUSE. 7. All animals are equal – BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
These rules and “revisions” of four of those rules are made in secret and through an undemocratic process. Sound familiar? We had a state budget go through without any debate or amendments in NC not that long ago.
We are still operating by that same budget.
Concentrate on that last commandment – “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
That brings to mind the recent bill in the NC House about what should be taught in our public schools.
The same people who allow public tax money to go to unsupervised private schools that teach this…
… are the same people who do not want schools to allow students to discuss these historical realities and the effects on our country:
It’s saying that some are more equal than others and blatantly telling everybody that we should not learn from the past to be better in the future.
Welcome to North Carolina and many other GOP controlled states where ALEC / State Policy Network initiatives are rammed through legislatures that ultimately benefit the pocketbooks and fragile feelings of a dwindling few.
State Superintendent Catherine Truitt has finally provided a public stance on Critical Race Theory.
That statement was in relation to this bill.
That bill comes from the same governing body that brought North Carolina this:
“In the decision in Cooper v. Harris, the eight-member pre-Gorsuch roster upheld a district court’s ruling that two congressional districts in North Carolina were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders, putting an end to one part of a six-year saga that began with redistricting in 2011.“
That racial gerrymandering was championed by another powerful politician, Phil Berger who just said this:
When in reality this is how far Berger’s party has really come:
And that same Lt. Gov. said last year:
“I don’t believe in systemic racism.” – Mark Robinson, Sept. 19th during Lt. Gov. candidate debate.
Last week this electronic interactive flyer was sent out to many in the state:
What’s TeachNC? It’s to recruit teacher candidates for our public schools. It began here:
In March of 2019, then state Superintendent Mark Johnson released his budget recommendations for the next two-year cycle for the North Carolina General Assembly to use in their shaky investment in NC’s public schools.
He published those recommendations on his website (it may not exist any longer). Here is part of that list.
His second initiative is a collaboration among the Department of Public Instruction, BEST NC and Teach.org, with support from the Belk Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Coastal Credit Union. “Teach NC,” launching this spring, is a “public-private teacher appreciation campaign to better align the image of the teaching profession with the fruitful, fulfilling career it is and develop a statewide teacher-recruitment system to attract the next generation of North Carolina teachers.”
It was first introduced as part of Mark Johnson’s #NC2030 initiative.
Well, Johnson is gone and we had this pandemic thing happen. And that budget request was attached to a budget that was never fully passed.
Yet TeachNC is still “recruiting.”
When I came back as a “new” teacher sixteen years ago for my second tenure in NC, Phil Berger and Tim Moore were not in power. And as a “new” teacher the following was freely given to new teachers as part of the agreement to be employed by the state of North Carolina:
A salary schedule that had step increases for every year of service.
The opportunity to receive due-process rights when I had obtained a continuing certificate after three successful years of teaching.
A schedule that included a seven period day with two planning periods and five classes that were capped in size.
Graduate degree pay as I had obtained my masters degree.
Health benefits as a retiree if I retired as a teacher in NC.
Money paid by the state to pursue National Boards.
Paid professional development from the state as it was in the budget.
The opportunity to receive longevity pay after 10 years of service like other state employees.
The absence of a school performance grading system that weighs test scores over student growth.
The knowledge that all monies designated for public education was actually going to public schools.
If I was to become a new teacher in 2020 with years of Berger and Moore and all of their “reforms,” how many of those would be available to me now?
None.
Funny how if those things were reinstated, then there would never be a need for TeachNC.
Okay. I have said it before – even before this pandemic but…
I want the seven-period school day back.
It’s better for schools.
It’s better for teachers.
But most of all, it is better for students.
In years past, winter weather and Winter Break obviously dictate a great amount in the time I see students in December and January. But after we come back from Winter Break, we usually go into an exam period that for over a week will decimate the regular schedule. (That brings up the issue of calendar flexibility).
That’s more time away from students. And before someone argues that technology can help span those divides in time and space, I will state that I need that face-to-face time with my students. It’s vital. It’s critical. It’s the basis for the student-teacher relationship in my opinion. AND THIS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IS ONLY SHOWING THAT MORE!
A seven-period school day would also have done our schools better in this period of school closures and hybrid attendance. My school system shut down its building on March 13th, 2020. For most of this year we have had to juggle synchronous and asynchronous class time with both in-class students and those who have chosen to stay remote.
What it meant was that we spent less time with classes in real time situations. A seven-period day would have assured more continuity and stronger foundations to help alleviate the struggles of distance learning.
Yes, many school systems have been on a block schedule for many, many years and there are many teachers who love the block schedule, but if we as a country are so enamored with test scores without the interruption of pandemics, it does not make sense to have more kids taking more classes and therefore more tests and expect them to score more points on those tests without giving them more time per class to study.
Even in a traditional school year without major crises like we are experiencing now:
Block classes force more students to devote less time to each class. With twenty –four hours still the span of a day, keeping up with seven classes per year as opposed to eight classes per year seems logical. That would mean more time per class to study the curriculum and to master the concepts. Furthermore, in the seven-period day, those students would take the class the entire year. That’s more opportunities for tutoring and remediation.
It allows for more continuity of classes. Core classes such as math or science may be predicated on previous material in previous classes. What if a student takes a math class in the fall of one school year, and then takes the next math in the spring of the following year? That’s a very large gap.
It makes scheduling easier. Some may effectively assert the argument that some classes could be on the A/B block which means that they would meet every other day throughout the year for a block of time. That presents more continuity, right? Not always. It is impossible to make all classes do that making scheduling a nightmare even more than it would be for just select classes using the A/B block. If all classes are offered at the same length of time for the entire year, scheduling for large schools becomes more streamlined.
If the block schedule (especially the A/B day block) is to prepare students for college, then it has missed its mark. College students tend to only take a full load of 4 classes per semester. We have students taking eight classes in an A/B block schedule at our schools, many of which are AP classes. Add some extra-curriculars and a job and lack of freedom that college students have and you have a schedule that actually seems harder to manage than a college student has.
It’s hard to keep attention spans for really long periods of time. If this post is too long, then you will not give the whole essay your attention. Sit in a meeting for more than an hour. Sit in church for more than an hour. Sit in traffic for more than an hour.
As a teacher, I want to see my students every day for the entire school year. That’s more face time and personal instruction. Instead of under 90 meetings in a school year, I would have almost 180 meetings. If my classes met every day over a year, my ability to track student progress and student achievement would be much more precise and have more historical data to measure against.
Students would have an easier time coming back from extended absences and breaks. On the A/B block that my school is on for over four weeks of time (winter holidays and exam schedule combined), a teacher may see his or her students for maybe the equivalent of 3 class periods. For true block classes that usually have those state exams used to rate schools, that means teachers see their students for maybe five class periods during that same frame. Not good.
Students would have a better shot at passing their courses the first time around. Students need 22 credits to graduate high school in NC. With the A/B day block or straight block schedule, these students have 32 possible credits they could earn. That’s a lot of wiggle room.
In essence, students in NC could fail 10 classes and still graduate in four years. A seven-period day gives students 28 credit chances, but with more time to devote to each class and more opportunities for face time with teachers and personalized instruction, plus extra calendar days for that class. It seems that it presents a better opportunity to do well in the class their first time.
Plus, students can still fail 6 classes and graduate in four years and that does not even consider credit recovery and summer school opportunities.
Graduation rates probably would not fall. If graduation rates are so key, then going to the 10-point scale took care of that. With a “50” being the lowest grade possible for a student to receive for a quarter score (at least in my school system) and a ten-point scale in place it means that 41 of the possible 51 quarter “averages” one could possibly obtain (60, 61, 62, … to a 100) are passing grades. Only 10 (50, 51 … to 59) are failing.
Those are just benefits for the students.
To talk of the benefits to teachers would take another entire post but it surely would talk about less teacher burnout, more opportunities to show leadership, offer more chances for collaboration, and give teachers more flexibility with duties and paperwork.
Let’s state the obvious. For many, Teacher Appreciation Week is nothing more than a warranted time for leaders to issue empty platitudes for the public to see and hear when the realities of their actions and policies are far from appreciating the teaching profession.
If you follow the twitter account of the State Superintendent and other DPI officials, then you know about recent travels to many school districts for chances to observe great things that have always been happening in our schools.
But the words that are shared and the observations given sometimes totally miss the mark and while they show an intent to “appreciate,” more times show ignorance.
So school report cards should not show a grade? Catherine Truitt received campaign the maximum amount allowed in contributions in 2020 from both Mr. and Mrs. Jim Goodnight, the founders of SAS which calculates the EVAAS scores and the actual School Performance Grades.
But this tweet from the State Super and members of NCDPI and the State Board of Education especialluy does not sit well.
Yes, these are good people who want to do good things, but while “Teacher Appreciation Week” was happening, a host of actions by lawmakers to weaken public schools and teachers was happening.
Here are a few:
Personal leave that requires teachers to list a reason.
I want to ask them to take public stance on each of those aforementioned issues that (besides the pandemic) have big impacts on public education here in NC.
Then maybe we can make a more informed decision as teachers about whether we feel appreciated.
“This bill creates an avenue for teachers to be able to utilize their personal leave benefit without being docked $50 a day from their pay,” Rep. Jeffrey Elmore, a Wilkes County Republican and the bill’s primary sponsor, said Thursday.
But if House Bill 362 becomes law, teachers who don’t provide a reason would be charged the full cost of hiring a substitute, which could be more than $100 a day. The bill now goes to the Senate.
The legislation addresses how North Carolina is one of the few states that requires teachers to help pay for the cost of hiring substitutes.
If I as a teacher am going to take a personal day, then maybe my reason for taking it is personal.
But knowing this NCGA, they will create a drop down list of reasons that are acceptable to them for taking a personal day so as to “monitor” teachers.
Maybe “None of your damn business” and ” I am coming to Raleigh to tell you lawmakers how bad you have been treating educators” will be on that list.
(1) General and uniform system: term. The General Assembly shall provide by taxation and otherwise for a general and uniform system of free public schools, which shall be maintained at least nine months in every year, and wherein equal opportunities shall be provided for all students.
There is one thing that the current powers in the North Carolina General Assembly fear most.
It is not unclean water. It is not a budget deficit. It sure as hell isn’t climate change. It’s not COVID-19. It’s not even gerrymandered maps, although all of those weigh in the equation.
It is having a well-educated general public – one that would not allow current lawmakers to be in a position of power to continue to promote an agenda that absolutely favors a few over those they should be helping. And their actions over these last nine-plus years have been a recipe in ensuring their policies remain intact.
Many of those have been very apparent. There is the current debacle of gerrymandered legislative districts. Even the redrawn maps have shown a more-than-obsessive addiction to hold on to majorities in Raleigh.Many of those have been very apparent. There is the current debacle of gerrymandered legislative districts. Even the redrawn maps have shown a more-than-obsessive addiction to hold on to majorities in Raleigh.
There was a voter-ID law that was struck down in the judicial system. A determined effort to water down minority voices might have been one of the most open secrets in this state. And now the last voter ID law recently passed still cannot decide what ID’s it will accept.
But those unconstitutional actions coincided with other egregious acts that have weakened public education to a breaking point – one that makes every election cycle so very important. Those actions have been assaults on public schools coated with a layer of propaganda that keeps telling North Carolinians that we need to keep reforming public education.
And now there is the push to root out “indoctrination.” Glittering generalities abound about what has been happening in classrooms based on third person accounts through filtered biases lenses.
A law-making body that can’t even pass a budget and is about as transparent as a supermassive black hole in a far off galaxy wants to make teachers post everything that might have had anything to do with coming up with a lesson plan.
Not many measures can both deter people from entering the teaching profession and quell the ability to teach students critical thinking skills as that bill which just passed in the NC House yesterday.
But this assault on having a well-educated general public has been happening for a long time in the name of “reform.”
What once was considered one of the most progressive public school systems in the South and the nation all of a sudden needed to be reformed? What necessitated that? Who made that decision? Look to the lawmakers who saw public education and the allotted budgeting for public education dictated by the state constitution as an untapped reservoir of money to funnel to private entities.
The public started to see test scores that appeared to be less than desirable even though what and who was being tested and the format of the testing was in constant flux.
The public started to see “school performance grades” that did nothing more than track how poverty affected student achievement. The “schools were failing” to actually help cover up what lawmakers were refusing to do to help people before they even had a chance to succeed in the classroom.
The teaching profession was beginning to be shaped by a business model that does not discern a public service from a profit minded investment scheme which changed a profession of professionals into one that favors short term contractors.
But there are two large indicators that voters in North Carolina should really pay attention to when it comes to the NCGA’s relentless pursuit to quell their fears of a well-educated general public – money spent per pupil and tuition costs to state supported universities.
Below is one of many different data tables that shows how willfully the NCGA has made sure to keep public schools from thriving (from the NC Justice Center’s July 2016 analysis) BEFORE THE PANDEMIC.
And how that per pupil expenditure truly affects schools becomes even clearer when you read reporting that clearly shows how funds are used (and stretched) by school systems.
Furthermore, resources get more expensive over time.
This table from that report should be easy to decipher.
Simply put, this is a great example of truth-telling and an equally fantastic exposure of the very fear that the NCGA has of thriving public schools. Nordstrom states,
“When adjusting for enrollment and inflation, school funding has been cut in the following areas since leadership of the General Assembly switched hands in 2010 (a time period in which the state was already struggling to find resources as a result of the Great Recession): classroom teachers, instructional support personnel (counselors, nurses, librarians, etc.), school building administrators (principals and assistant principals), teacher assistants, transportation, low wealth schools, disadvantaged students, central office, limited English proficiency, academically gifted, small counties, driver training, and school technology. Funding streams for teacher professional development and mentoring of beginning teachers have been eliminated completely.”
Don’t we still have a state surplus?
Don’t we spend millions to validate vouchers that have shown no improvement in student outcome?
The answer is “YES” to both of these.
Remember, our lawmakers are bragging that we are economically thriving. So who is profiting?
And those “wealthier, older, and more educated Republicans” who are in control in Raleigh have also enabled state-supported colleges and universities to become more expensive.
At the beginning of 2017 year, WUNC published a report called “Incoming UNC Students Likely To See Tuition Increase” (http://wunc.org/post/incoming-unc-students-likely-see-tuition-increase#stream/0). In it there is a data table that shows the steady and steep increase in tuition costs for UNC undergraduate resident tuition.
And yes, we are still a bargain compared to other states, but that is an over 70% increase that does not include housing, board, food, supplies, books, travel, and all of the other expenses sure to accompany a college experience.
Imagine what will happen as we try to crawl out of the pandemic.
Is it supposed to make sense that rising tuition costs should accompany lower per-pupil expenditure in public secondary schools all the while boasting of a state surplus in a state that currently has racially gerrymandered legislative districts and an increased investment in a rather robust effort to privatize public schools?
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